Black Girl Unrestricted

Self-love comes as a prerequisite for leading a happy life. Educating yourself more about yourself is such a beneficial exercise as through the process you learn to love yourself as you are. You learn that there is more to life than striving to fit other people’s ideals of how you should be. This education story propels the notion of self-love and admiration in the form of a personal account of ‘breaking free’. Social media is a relative element to establishing ‘a new generation of education’ due to the the fact that using media platforms to educate oneself is a strikingly new and effective way of educating others as well as for the purpose of personal growth as illustrated in this article.

It all started with the notion of being a ‘woke sista’. It was because of this idea that I have learnt to love myself, I have learnt to appreciate all the glory that comes with being me. I used to overvalue people’s opinions and that was detrimental to my wellbeing. My confidence plummeted and I became a shadow of those who were around me.

I think my mom noticed because she started asked why I was no longer as talkative as before, why was I always on my own. I could not answer these questions because I myself did not know why I had changed so much.

I guess I could say that social media became my saving grace. I used to scroll through posts upon posts about black love and black appreciation. I don’t know how I came to pay attention to these posts but I am eternally grateful for whatever it was that pushed me to do that. Day after day I would read these posts by black people and for black people, affirming self-love and self-appreciation. It was then that the bubble burst.

I knew it would be a while until my confidence was back on par with what it used to be, if ever, but I knew it was time for change. My appearance was one of the first things I changed, or rather reconsidered. I could not care less about trends or fashion statements, I wore what I saw. I cut my hair so that I could grow it naturally, free of harmful chemicals and tedious processes. It was the beginning of a new me, a glorified self.

My reliance on other people’s opinions about me decreased, and greatly so. I decided that the most important opinion was to be my own. If I had to decide on anything that directly involved me, I would have the final say.

It was because of these black affirmative posts that I fell in love with being a black girl; I was to be a black girl, unrestricted. I educated myself on black history because the education system just was not doing enough, not even the bare minimum for what I wanted to know. I then set out to know more about black people and once again, social media came to my rescue. With what I learnt, I was determined to teach those around me. I became so engulfed in black love and appreciation, I set out to write a book, and the title? Black Girl Unrestricted, of course.

Loving and appreciating myself were two of the greatest gifts I could ever have received, they have done wonders for my soul. I am filled with love and appreciation for myself and other black people and because of this, life is so great. The day I accepted my blackness was an epiphany of note.